Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-09-29
SALVATION BY TORTURE.
A Blood-Uurdling Religious Orgy INDUCED in
BY Fanatical Arabs.

cred city of Kairwan, in Tunis, describes
the extraordinary orgy or ceremony
known as salvation by torture, in the
Fortnightly Review. He says: Sudden
ly a line of four or five Arabs formed in
front of the entrance. They joined hands
and presently began alurching movement
which was gradually communicated TO
every member of their bodies, and from
the crown of their heads to the soles of
their feet they were presently keeping
time to the music in convulsive Jerks
and leaps and undulations. This row of
bobbing figures seemed to exercise an
irresistible. fascination over the specta-
tors.
Every moment one or other of these
left his place to join the ranks. Thus toe
time ever heightened, and before the self
torturing commenced there were forty
human figures stretched right across the
building and all rocking backward and
forward in grim and ungraceful unison.
Even the spectators, who kept their pla-
ces, could not resist the contagation; as
they sat there they unconsciously kept
time with their heads AID shoulders, and
one little child swung his head this way
and that with fury that threatened to
separate it from his body.
Meanwhile the music had been growing
in intensity, the orchestra sharing the ex
citment which they communicated. The
drummers beat their tambours with re-
doubled force, lifting them high above
their heads and occasionally at some ex-
treme pitch, tossing them aloft and
catching them again as they fell. Some
times in the exaltation of frenzy they
started spasmodically to their feet and
then sank back into their original
position.
And now the oscillating line in front of
the doorway for the first time found ut
terance. As they leaped high on one foot
alternately kicking out the other, as their
heads wagged to and fro and their bodies
quivered with the muscular strain, they
cried aloud in the praise of Allah. LA
ilaha i'll AllaE!" there is no God but
Allah this was the untiring burden of
their strain. And then came ''Ya Allah!"
60, God) and sometimes, "Ya Kahhar!"
60, avenging God) "Ya Haiku" 60, just
God), while each burst of clamerous ap-
peal In an awful shout of "Ya Hoo!" 60,
Him).
The rapidity and vehemence of their
OSCILLATIONS were now appalling; their
heads swung backward and forward till
their foreheads almost touched their
breasts, and their scalps smote against
their backs. Sweat poured from their
faces; they painted for breath, and the ex-
CARNATIONS burst from their mouths in a
thick and stertuos murmur. Suddenly
without warning, the first phase of the
zakir ceased, and the actors stood gasp
ing, shaking and dripping with perspel-
alton.
After a few minutes respite the per-
Torrance recommended, and shortly wax
ed more furious than ever. The wor-
shippers seemed to be gifted with an al
most superhuman strength and energy.
AS they flung themselves to and fro, at
one moment their faces cleaned with a
sickly polish under the Pickering lamps,
at the next THAR turbaned heads all but
brushed the floor. Their eyes started
from the sockets; the muscles on their
necks and the veins on their foreheads,
stood out like knotted cords. One old
man fell out of the ranks breathIess,
spent and foaming. His place was taken
by another, and the tumultous orgy went
on.
And now as the exstacy approached its
height and the fully initiated became
melboos or possessed, they broke from
grinning and ferocious and bestial cries.
these writhing and contorted objects
were no longer rational human beings but
savage animals, Gagged brutes, bowling
madly in the delirium of hunger or of
pain. They growled like bears, they bar
ked like iackals, they roared like lions,
they laughed like hyenas, and ever and
anon from the seething rank rose dia-
hn1 oh La ba of wi,
horse or the yell of a tortured fend
And stediiy the while in the background
resounded the implaeable reverberance of
the drums.
The climax was now reached; the requi.
site pitch of cataleptic inebratiop had
been obtained, and the rites of Aissa were
about to begin. From the crowd at the
door a wild figure broke forth, tore of
his upper clothing till he was naked to
the waist, and throwing away his fez
barred head close shaven save for one
long disleveled lock that, springing from
the scalp, fell over his forehead like some
srislv and funeral plume. A long knife,
somewhat resembling cutlas, was hand
ed to him by the shiekh, who had risen
to his feet, and who had directed the
phenomena that ensued.
Waving it wildly, above his head and
protruding the forepart of his figure, the
fanatic brought down blow after blow
against his bare stomach and drew it saw
agely to and fro against the unprotected
skin. There showed the marks of long
and livid veal, but no blood spurted from
the cash. In the intervals between the
strokes he ran swiftly from one side to
the other of the open space. taking long
healthy strides like panther about to
spring, and seemingly SO powerless over
his own movements that he knocked
blindly up against those who stood in his
way, nearly upsetting them with the VIC
lence of the collision.
The proves or the piety of this ardent
deyotee proved extraordinarily contag
ious. First one and then another of his
bretheren caught the af1atus end followed
his example. In a few moments every
part of the mosque was scene of some
novel and horrible rite of self humiliation,
performed by fresh aspirant to the
favor of Allah.
The Slave Trade
blue book published in London con-
sains last years correspondence GA the